The Rutles (soundtrack)
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| The Rutles | |||||||||||
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| Soundtrack by The Rutles | |||||||||||
| Released | 1978 | ||||||||||
| Genre | Comedy | ||||||||||
| Length | 50:27 | ||||||||||
| Label | Warner Brothers | ||||||||||
| Professional reviews | |||||||||||
| The Rutles chronology | |||||||||||
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The Rutles is a soundtrack album to the 1978 telemovie All You Need Is Cash. The album contains over 14 of the tongue-in-cheek, pastiches of Beatles' songs that featured in the film.
Multiple listenings are required to discern all the sources referenced in titles, lyrics, melodies, and song structures. The primary creative force of the Rutles music was Neil Innes, the sole composer and arranger of the songs. Innes had been the 'seventh' member of Monty Python, as well as one of the main artists behind the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band in the late 1960s, who had been featured in the real Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour performing "Death Cab For Cutie".
Innes himself credits the three musicians he recruited to assist him on the project as having been enormously important in helping him capture the feel of the Beatles. Guitarist/singer Ollie Halsall and drummer John Halsey had played together in the groups Timebox and Patto. Multi-instrumentalist Rikki Fataar had played with The Flame before joining the Beach Boys in the early 1970s.
Not commonly known is that Eric Idle is not heard at all on the music soundtrack of the film. He did not play or sing on any of the recordings. He is skillful at lip-syncing the 'Dirk' vocals that were in fact sung by Ollie Halsall. Innes says that Idle, who had recently had an appendectomy, offered to help but was encouraged to recuperate. Were it not for the inherently ironic lyrics, it might be difficult to distinguish the songs from true Beatles numbers (indeed, the 1978 Beatles bootleg Indian Rope Trick included The Rutles' "Cheese and Onions", incorrectly — and perhaps jokingly — attributing it to John Lennon). In the early 1980s, Innes was accused by one American Beatle fan of stealing unreleased Beatles tracks to use in the film; this was based on a recording of "Cheese And Onions" obtained by the fan which he believed to be by John Lennon. When the recording was played to Innes, he was amused to discover that it was actually his own demo of the song - a tribute to his skills as a parodist.
The songs written by Innes so cleverly parodied the original source material that he was taken to court by the owners of The Beatles catalogue. Innes had to testify under oath that he had not listened to the songs at all while composing The Rutles songs, but had created them completely originally based on what he remembered various Beatles songs sounding like at different times.
The cover art of the album suggested the existence of a number of other Rutles albums including Tragical History Tour and Let It Rot.
[edit] Tracklisting
The album contains some obvious send-ups of Beatles numbers such as "Ouch!" ("Help!"), "Love Life" ("All You Need is Love"), "Piggy in the Middle" ("I Am the Walrus"), "Doubleback Alley" ("Penny Lane") and "Get Up And Go" (CD reissue only -- "Get Back"). However, its real tribute is in its subtly layered blending of elements from many classic Lennon-McCartney tunes.
The original LP album omitted several songs which were restored on the 1990 CD reissue.
- "Goose-Step Mama" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:18 (not on LP)
- Parody based on "Some other guy"
- "Number One" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:52
- Parody based on "Twist and Shout"
- "Baby Let Me Be" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 1:57 (not on LP)
- Parody based on "Long Tall Sally"
- "Hold My Hand" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:11 (shorter than LP version, which has an "airplane" sound intro - actually the sound sounds like an aeroplane to begin with (like "Back In The USSR") but you then realise it is the sound of the recording studio being vacuumed)
- Parody based on "All My Loving" with some elements of "It Won't Be Long","Eight days a week", and "She loves you" mixed in
- "Blue Suede Schubert" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:13 (not on LP)
- Parody based on "Roll Over Beethoven"
- "I Must Be In Love" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:06
- Parody based on "A Hard Day's Night"
- "With A Girl Like You" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 1:53
- Parody based on "If I Fell"
- "Between Us" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:03 (not on LP)
- Parody based on "And I Love Her"
- "Living In Hope" (Womble) - 2:39
- Parody based on "Don't Pass Me By" and "Act naturally"
- "Ouch!" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 1:52
- Parody based on "Help!"
- "It's Looking Good" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:02 (not on LP)
- Parody based on "I'm looking through you", and "I don't want to spoil the party"
- "Doubleback Alley" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:57
- Parody based on "Penny Lane"
- "Good Times Roll" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 3:05
- Parody based on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
- "Nevertheless" (O'Hara) - 1:29
- Parody based on "Within You Without You" and "Love you to"
- "Love Life" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:52
- Parody based on "All You Need is Love"
- "Piggy In The Middle" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 4:11
- Parody based on "I Am the Walrus"
- "Another Day" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:13
- Parody based on "Martha My Dear"
- "Cheese And Onions" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 2:42
- Parody based on "A Day in the Life"
- "Get Up And Go" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 3:19 (not on LP)
- Parody based on "Get Back"
- "Let's Be Natural" (Nasty/McQuickly) - 3:22
- Parody based on "Dear Prudence"
The above songs were all actually written by Neil Innes. The songwriter attributions above are the 'fictional' writing credits listed as they would have been in the 'Rutles universe.' Reflecting the balance of songwriting credits on most Beatles albums, the vast majority of the songs are credited to Ron Nasty and Dirk McQuickly (the 'John and Paul' of The Rutles), with one composition each credited to the rivals for 'George' (Stig O'Hara) and 'Ringo' (Barry Wom)
The only song from the film that did not end up on the soundtrack is "You Need Feet." It was not included because it was not actually a Rutles piece, but an existing song written & performed by Bernard Bresslaw.
The liner notes of the album give the names of the Warner Brothers as "Stan & Reg". The actual names of the four founders of the Warner Bros. film company are Harry Warner, Albert Warner, Sam Warner and Jack L. Warner.
[edit] The Rutles(Soundtrack ) Alternate Versions & Re-Issues
"The Rutles" / Warner Brothers Records / WB- W5 3151 ( 1978 Cassette Version )
Side 1: "Good Times Roll","Doubleback Alley","Cheese And Onions","Another Day","Piggy In the Middle","Let's Be Natural"
Side 2: "Hold My Hand","Number One","With A Girl Like You","I Must Be In Love","Ouch!","Living In Hope","Love Life","Nevertheless"
- The Canadian version,on casette,is the only version of this release to actually be titled, "Meet The Rutles"
"The Rutles"/ Warner Brothers Records/ S 142137/ M8 3151 ( 1978 - 8 Track Tape Version )
Track 1: "Hold My Hand","With A Girl Like You","I Must Be In Love","Love Life"
Track 2: "Number One","Ouch!","Nevertheless","Doubleback Alley"
Track 3: "Living In Hope","Good Times Roll","Let's be Natural"
Track 4: "Cheese And Onions","Another Day","Piggy In The Middle"
"The Rutles" / Rhino Records / 1990 / R2 75760 / U.S. only release / 1st C.D. issue
- Contains the original 14 tracks + "Goose Step Mama","Baby Let Me Be","Blue Suede Schubert","Between Us","It's Looking Good" and "Get Up & Go"
- Airplane sound effects and count in ,missing from "Hold My Hand"
- Insert folds out into "Rutlemania" memorabilia mini-poster.
- First appearance of catalogue numbers for each track.
- First mention of "The Silver Rutles Demos" & "Rutle Soul" albums.
- C.D. label designed to look like Capitol Records Yellow & Orange Swirl 45 RPM Label
"The Rutles" / Rhino Records / 2007 / 8122-79968-9 / U.K. only release / 1st U.K. C.D. issue
- Same material as U.S. C.D. ( including edited "Hold My Hand" as noted above. )
- Digi-pack designed to open as a gatefold album with alternate front cover.
- Booklet contains most of the original Rutles booklet. ( Paul Simon interview is missing.)
- C.D. in Mini-Sleeve that duplicates the "other artistes on the Rutle label" album sleeve.
- Does not include song lyrics.
